| Author | Messages | |
Dobber - 
Moderator
4-Pointer
 | | 10/03/2007 7:27 PM |
| Well it started with a 15 hour drive to the northern parts of Ontario, we passed many deer in the night drive, an elk feeding along side of the road and a nice sized timber wolf.
Weather was way too hot for the rut to be in full swing, but we were there and hunting no matter what. On the first day one of the group had a cow and twin calfs at 81 yards across the bay, so a good start to a hunt seeing animals that quick in a new area. I called out my first bull and was real happy with that, just a small 2.5 year old but since he didn't see anything looking like a cow he just stood there and looked my way for over 10 minutes at a distance of 109 yards. He slowly walked across the cut and was gone.
Later in the week a friend we had up from Wisconsin had the thrill of his life when my buddy called in a mature bull, it "wooffed' for almost an hour making his way closer to the call. With the bull getting ever closer his nerves took over and he started shaking pretty bad, and all the breathing excersizes in the world wasn;t going to change that. Then at 75 yards he came out in the bay and started to walk around the bay towards the point he had picked to hunt from. He had cut 2 shooting lanes and was within 10 yards of the water. The big bull (guessed at over 50" spread) slowly made his way towards the first shooting lane, a few more steps and he was there. My buddy was at full draw and waited for the bull to make 2 more steps, he made 1 step and stopped. Heart pounding, knees shaking, arms getting tired, beads of sweat rolling down his brow and then the moose made his move. He turned in towards the shooting lane and was about to come face to face with the hunter. Not a real low percentage shot he had two options, take the shot in the neck or back up and hope the moose does the same. He took the shot and had a complete pass through the neck, it took off across the bay and it looked like a great hit, loads of blood that was seen over 150 yards away from the caller.
This took place at 7pm, we all gathered up and decided to walk the shore line to see where he went back in the bush, got some flash lights and geared up. During this time we had a huge downpour and things weren't looking good for a blood trail. We got all our gear and started to track him about 9pm, real slow and not much blood. We tracked him about a mile and gave up for the night at around 2am and took to sleeping in the trucks till morning. The wolves were out that night, howling across the lake.
at about 7am we started out again and found out that the moose made his way back to the lake and swam across to the other side. Now we got in the argo and made our way to the other side, picking and chosing where we thought he came up. We found blood again, just small drips and most under leaves and the bottom side of tree branches. We tracked him through some real thick nasty bush and worked our way up the ridge. He now had gone at least 2 miles from where he was hit and the blood was real hard to find. We ended the tracking in a big tamarack swamp, where no blood was found and the moose tracks were everywhere. The time was 3:30pm.
Many hours spending tracking this moose but i am confident that he made it as a mortally wounded animal would bed down and always take the easy way up a ridge or along the shore line. This moose did neither, he was walking over dead falls that were 5' high, up steep ridges, and he swam 300 yards across the lake.
Only 356 days left till next year | | | |
| MelSue -
Forum Administrator
Record Book
Metamora, Illinois
| | 10/03/2007 7:39 PM |
| | What a feisty moose and what a chase he led you all on. Thanks for sharing here, I've been anxiously awaiting to hear how it went. | |
 | |
| AndyC -
4-Pointer
| | 10/03/2007 9:27 PM |
| | Sounds awsome. Where exactly did you go in Canada? Is there public ground available up there for a guy to bow hunt for moose? That would be an awsome hunt for me and my brother to go on in the next few years. Hopefully take my grandpa along. | | | |
| countrygirl -
Forum Moderator
4-Pointer
Illinois
| | 10/03/2007 10:41 PM |
| | Great story Ian, I injoyed reading it. Sorry to hear you'all didnt find the moose. But sounds like he must of been fine to have gown that far and all. Better luck next year, 356 days will be here before you know it!!! | | | |
| Dobber -
Moderator
4-Pointer
| | 10/04/2007 6:15 AM |
| A non resident must go through an outfitter but if you look around you can find some reasonable places to go. Due to tags being a pain to get, and we applied in a different area we bought tags from the outfitter, there was 7 of us and it was less than $3k total for tags and a cottage.
Lots of land to hunt and the lodge owner will point you in a direction but lots of work on your end once you get there to find a spot to call your own.
Tag for a non resident is about $366
If your going to head up for a hunt make sure you do loads of research, learn how to call, and what to do when calling. Buy yourself a good call as well, pm me for details on one of the best if interested.
and CG its only 355 days now *G* | | | |
| tubby -
Record Book
Moundville,Alabama
| | 10/04/2007 6:54 AM |
| | Sounds like a blast.A moose is one tough animal.Was a cool story,thanks for sharing. | |
Tubby
The God of My Rock;He Is My Sheild;And The Horn Of My Salvation 2 Samuuel,Ch 22 | |
| ontarioben -
4-Pointer
| | 10/10/2007 6:18 PM |
| | Dobber, sounds like the arrow must of hit the muscle that separates the throat and spine, sounds like the deer I shot a couple years ago it was a clean pass-through in the neck, it hit the shoulder on the other side but the son-of-a-gun ran off like it just got stung, seen it two weeks later chasing does. | | | |
| cb -
6-Pointer
| | 10/11/2007 7:49 AM |
| Sorry that you didn't get him but it reads like an exciting time. A memory worth the trip.
I fish around Alsas and have seen many nice moose in that area. We have pics of cows standing on shore watching us pass by on the rivers not 40 yards from the boats. We've seen young bulls belly deep in the lake and watched them move to shore, I thought those legs would never end. At that time I didn't realize how much room there was from belly to hoof.
I wish you better luck next time. | | | |
| ianhuntsny -
4-Pointer
Orange/Ulster County New York
| | 10/11/2007 7:00 PM |
| | sounds like a great hunt. | | | |
|
| | You are not authorized to post a reply. |
|
| |
|